Intermission #44

I'm honestly getting too old for all this. Everything.

Too impatient with the wait. Too temperamental to tolerate the many quirks of people at work. Too lazy to just do it.

And way too attached to risk the loss.

Current Music: 50 Ways to Say Goodbye - Train

Calm Before the Storm

Time-out.

A short break.

Pulling the brakes before heading - headfirst - into a new posting. Fifth posting. Obs & Gynae. This Sunday.

I am overwhelmed, though not in a positive sense of the word.

God, how I wish I have long finished this phase of working. I'm sick of working in an ancient hellhole with idiots running, administrating the place.

Too bloody long.

Would I say I am a more knowledgeable person now than, say, the fresh medical graduate of yore?

Hardly.

And here I am, wondering how on earth is it possible that I can think of everything and nothing, all at the same darn time.

Current Music: I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift

Compilations #19

1. Turnabout

On one fine night I was asked (read: ordered) to cover the haemato/onco ward for a day - a decision I made when I was barely awake, as I was already in my deep slumber. The next morning, with some sense of trepidation, I forced my way to the dilapidated ward instead of my usual route to my usual ward (High Dependency Ward).

Despite the reduced work load, I found myself missing HDW. And no amount of words could ever describe the relief I felt when I returned to HDW the following day.

I suppose some things just grow on you, despite your initial hatred - or indifference - towards them at first.

And some other things, after some twists of fate here and there, unexpected as they may be, can instantaneously trigger a complete change of reaction too.

I guess that's how life is meant to be, even after all these years of living. It is inevitable to judge and to be judged, but one must also be open to changes and be prepared to be challenged, be it physically or mentally and - mostly - spiritually.

We can't win them all. There will be some downsides...but at the end of the day all we can do is to estimate whether the positive aspects outweigh the negative, and if the former will all be worth the troubles of putting up with the latter.

2. Distance

Dear God, I can't take this anymore. But being too close for comfort has its own share of problems too.

Am I the only one who's hurting here?

Desiderata

Desiderata (L.) - desired things

With what little time I do have to spare after a hard day's work, is it any wonder that my brain refuses to embark in any further ruminating? And naturally my words will not write themselves, as all I yearn to do these days is to succumb to my lethargy and let my dreams take over.

But I must refrain from talking about work. Because my life is more than that, yes. And because I shouldn't be thinking about work on an off-day.

...My attention capacity is at a worrying level. I can't even finish a chapter properly, what more a book. And yet I still find myself handing over the cash to purchase another book. As I clutch the item close to my person, my mind wonders if this time will be any different from the last time I lost myself in a bookstore.

Whatever the response to that question may be, it ends with my forsaking that thought - because honestly, habits die hard - and praying to God that my self-control will eventually triumph over this materialistic want.

And so I peek into my purse, sigh into it, and chucked it into my bag and walk away, pushing whatever regret I may have into the back of my mind, until it reappears like a sceptre the next time I repeat this folly.

Shopaholic in the making? Goodness, I hope not.

Also, the number of pants that I have now is dangerously close to the number of skirts I already have. Which is worrying, considering that - if you knew me at all - I have never been a pants kind of a person.

Until recently, I suppose. Because there is no way on God's Earth can you wear a skirt or baju kurung and perform CPR without appearing...undignified.

Current Music: Call It What You Want - Foster the People

Intermission #43

1. Perhaps it is time to take the plunge into the uncertain.

Testing the waters too long may have been an act of cowardice, but who can handle the thought of one's dreams collapsing?

Perhaps, in a way, it's already too late to back down.

2. I notice that I enjoy working when I go the extra mile voluntarily, not when people start demanding as if we are their personal attendants or something.

3. Roughly around 7 more weeks until Medical ends, iA. Praying that all will go well.

Also, my paranoia needs to stop intruding my subconscious and translating my dreams into nightmares.

Current Music: Hello - Karmin

Intermission #42

1. Yesterday was tiring, but worth it in the end.

Congrats, my dear sir, for exceeding my expectation not once, but twice over.

Congrats, dear self, for maintaining self-control.

2. Dear God, nephro ward is depressing. Not only because I'm the only one in the morning shift (why would an introvert like me feel lonely though?)...but because of the challenging veins and several patients yang banyak sangat cekadak, apa kata balik je la!!??

Cepat la habis, oh Medical! I can't take this no more...

Current Music: Stereo Hearts - Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine

Intermission #41

I shouldn't let my work define my entire life. There's more to life than just work, after all.

I shouldn't let people get to me. People will be people anyway.

I shouldn't let my emotions get the best out of me, even when I probably have too much of them to begin with. Too much for this frail frame to handle.

I shouldn't get too involved in uncertain issues.

I should adhere to all the above mantra, because life is tough and what other option do we have other than to be tougher?

I still haven't grown up after all these years, have I?

Current Music: Safe and Sound - Taylor Swift featuring The Civil Wars

Upside Down

1. I'm astounded as to how ignorant I could be at times.

2. One reason why I chose this profession was because how I hated bureaucracy - the sense of being a "pak/mak turut" to your superiors because you're just a lowly kuli and so inexperienced and oh-so-styoopid.

Dear God, I didn't expect I could be more wrong. This is the epitome of bureaucracy.

Remember this rule?

(i) Your boss is always right.

(ii) If your boss is wrong, refer to rule number (i).

Yeah. My working environment is the perfect embodiment of this rule.

Which naturally brings us back to my point 1. Woe is me!

3. Perhaps rather than blowing your top and scolding us house officers (who are nothing but your cheap source of labour anyway), you MOs or specialists or whatnot's should just sit together and discuss among each other what each and everyone of you can request from each other, so that one department will not go and order bizarre and insane things from other departments.

It'd do a world of good rather than sitting together and complaining about us HOs. At least you'd probably understand each other better instead of condemning other departments for their so-called inefficiency or joblessness or whatever rubbish you can think of. Unless your egos are just too big to listen to other people.

What use is there in yakking at me when I'm only following orders?

And for the love of God don't bother asking me questions when you don't give me a chance to answer or give proper reasons.

And if you're just too high and mighty to entertain us HOs, then go yak at my superiors instead!

Honestly though. It feels as if all the higher ups do is complain about us rather than changing the hospital system or manner of management.

They're doing it wrong. But who are we to tell them that, hmm?

4. Don't think just because we're HOs, we have no idea what we're doing.

Oh wait, I forgot. We're your punching bag, your scapegoat, your black sheep. Getting scolded at for no good reason is apparently part of our job description.

...Pshaw! Is this what you call professionalism? Is there a need to make other people's lives more difficult than necessary?

5. I'm becoming less enthusiastic to join Pathology with each passing minute. Damn it.

6. God, when will this suffering end!?

I just hope I will not become like those that I now hate. Difficult, certainly, what with my own temper becoming more and more uncontrollable by the minute...

Current Music: Drive By - Train

Intermission #40

1. Getting real tired of all this crap, of this emotional roller coaster, and the unnecessary sources of stress.

I don't understand how some people can find even the smallest mistakes to point fingers at us lowly HOs.

How is it that people can find so much entertainment, so much sadistic joy in demeaning us the little people? Have they forgotten that they were once like us?

Or do they automatically judge us as incompetent just because we now subscribe to the shift system as opposed to their much demanding oncall system?

For all you know some of us lowly house officers are actually better than how they used to be back in those days in some aspects.

Of course there are those that are problematic, but what about the rest of us who work for real? Do all our hard work and energy go unnoticed?

Honestly, I don't enjoy my work anymore.

2. I can feel the distance growing between us, you who have risen above and I, still stuck in this gutter.

You who are having the time of your life, and I, struggling to find the small beacon of joy amidst all this despair.

You who have all the time on your hands, and I, always behind.

You who are in a crowd, while I, left deserted.

So forgive me for my inability to share your laughter, and - perhaps? - I shall forgive you for forsaking me.

Current Music: Hall of Fame - The Script featuring will.i.am

The Long and the Short of It

I'm making quite a name for myself as a no-nonsense, perpetually pissed off (senior) HO.

My scolding patients is not a new sight these days.

After 1 year in the system, I am already so severely disillusioned.

Is it that bad? Perhaps I exaggerate at times, but perhaps very few would argue with me if I say that the absurdities that this sorry excuse for a hospital dishes out to us house officers beats HTAA by a long, long shot.

Lab rules and protocols are moronic that I'm utterly embarrassed to adhere to their stupid system.

Patients boleh tahan jugak banyak cekadak diorang.

So called protocols and procedures retard our work.

Stupid CMEs are mostly a waste of time, when presenters obviously didn't put in much of an effort.

And for God's sake please stop calling me "Kak" already; I'm an effing doctor for crying out loud, stop telling me to change your IV drip!

And 2 years of HO-ship is too bloody long. Would I say that I'm learning? Hardly - most of my present knowledge I carried from my years as a medical student.

Four months of one posting is too long. What are we, cheap sources of labour!? Will all these insane levels of stress and overwhelming workload and lack of appreciation be worth it in the end?

I realise that the despair and disappointment in the general quality of HOs are not entirely fictional, but even so all this brouhaha is shedding light on an entirely wrong perspective. Even I occasionally facepalm at certain peers of mine, that at times I want nothing more than to fling my shoe in their direction.

I maintain that the higher ups should also share the blame, instead of making us the scapegoats just because we're the lowest in the hierarchy.

The working conditions could use a great deal of improvement. But what to do, the hospital is in poverty anyway.

The hospital is in near-shambles. The elevators are too damn slow, they give no meaning to "stat" anymore. As if the stupid procedures to enter the lab itself is not slowing things enough...

And don't even get me started on how stupid all this code asking business just to ask for blood.

I'm frankly surprised that the mortality rate of this hospital isn't any higher.

Screw everything, I'm outta here as soon as I can if I can help it.

Current Music: How to Go - School Food Punishment

Halfway There, Halfway Gone

"We often like to believe what we want to believe, often because the real facts challenge us too much. It is far easier to wallow in our prejudices than to seek out the truth in anything" ~ Marina Mahathir, The Star 30/08/2012.

1. Dear God, I can't believe that I'm already in Year Two of working.

I think of it as a mid-working life crisis. You know that you're long enough into the job that certain things are already second nature to you. You know enough people and are familiar with the procedures to get things done. You've worked long enough that you're already a familiar face to certain staffs.

And yet there are still things that still get to me.

How my stamina doesn't seem to have improved over the past year. How less tolerant I am to people - patients and relatives alike - who are bloody irritating. How pissed off I could get when my work is delayed no thanks to bureaucracy and the higher ups' ego and mood swings.

I like Medical because of the approach. But what I dislike about it is that it strikes me as a behavioural thing and thus, because of human fallacy and habits are just so hard to break, the process is endless.

Admissions are aplenty. Patients smell of cigarette smoke. Patients with psychiatric problems contributing to the chaos in the ward. And damn stupid elastoplasts that don't secure branulas properly should just rot in hell along with all the stupid, temperamental ECG machines.

This hospital is getting more and more idiotic.

2. The human factor in medicine is, as always, a great contributor to this love-hate (mostly hate, to be honest) I share with Medicine as a whole.

That is one reason why I shouldn't be allowed to practise clinical work.

But doing Pathology would mean abandoning the ward procedures, which previously actually took me some time to acquire.

Other specialties that I have considered include Anaesthesiology, Orthopaedics, Surgical and even ENT (I quote an MO of mine: "Easy no tension!").

Some people say I should worry about these options later. I say that I need something to look forward to, to work hard for.

All I know is, I need to get out of this damned hospital.

3. I feel old these few days. Maybe because a great number of fellow HOs in my current department are first posters, therefore are substantially younger (~2 years) than I am. Sometimes people mistook me for an MO - compounded by the fact that I prefer to roam around the ward without my white coat (I blame the global warming!).

A few people I already know are already MOs. I'm feeling some sort of delayed development here on my part.

4. Dang, esok keje lagi...

Current Music: Payphone - Maroon Five featuring Wiz Khalifa

Whence Shalt I Even Begin?

First of all - yes, I'm done with Surgical posting. There were a few hiccups every now and then - though I maintain that I am by no means guilty of most of them! - but the important thing is that I'm out of the torture chamber!

It's a good feeling. Praises be to Him, as He had definitely Eased me through it all. Especially since the department seems to be deteriorating with every passing minute, it's fortunate that I've already completed my four months' imprisonment. I want out of the madness, and not a minute too late!

Four months is a long time, no kidding. You know you're practically an ancient relic when your MOs start asking you if you're still in the department...because you've been with them for so long already. Pfft!

Would I say that I'm a better person after this experience? I truly doubt it. I remember getting frustrated and wondering if there was still justice in the world and fearing that my humanity will eventually be compromised in the process...or that I will evolve to become a replica of those that I despise.

My end of posting leave is approved, and I've been home for a few days. Alas, my sleeping pattern is as screwed as ever, and I spent most of my hours catching up with valuable Zzz's.

I'm just so bad at this.

Current Music: Need You - Travie McCoy

Intermission #39

"O you who are patient! Bear a little more, just a little more remains" ~ Ibn Qayyim

Dear God, it feels like there's still some way to go for me to finish this journey - my current posting for one thing, my entire role as a lowly house officer is another.

Especially when people I know are already a step above me.

I won't lie - there's slight awkwardness involved.

Dear God, I feel too much it'll probably be the downfall of me.

Buck up, self! Jangan nak emo sangat, boleh tak? Pfft~!

Current Music: Science & Faith - The Script

Intermission #38

1. Ramadhan is here again, Alhamdulillah.

Though there is some sadness in me knowing that my late grandfather is no longer around, both for the fasting and the incoming Syawal.

I try not to make a big deal out of sahur and breaking fast solo, but there is no helping it when I falter once in awhile.

Here's to praying that all will be well - my making good use of this Ramadhan, finishing my Surgical posting with a bang, among them.

Happy Ramadhan, people.

2. They say some things are better left unsaid.

But what if one never says something that another expects from him or her?

They say actions speak louder than words.

And that a smile is a universal language in its own right.

Am I being selfish if I were to ask for more?

Or maybe the signs were all there, but I'm just too careful, too negative to acknowledge them.

...because I'm just one dense ignoramus.

Current Music: Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Kelly Clarkson

Defeated

1. I want to give up.

It's like I can't say or do anything without being judged, and my intentions being misunderstood.

Am I speaking in some alien language, and are my thoughts so out of this world?

Am I so insignificant that I can be trampled to the ground just like that?

Why does everything seem foreign to me all of a sudden?

I condemn myself enough, there is no need for anyone to share that luxury anymore. Especially when they know nothing.

...If only I could give up without compromising anything.

2. It's all a matter of time, is it not?

They say good things come to those who wait.

Others say that time and tide wait for no man.

Which principle should I subscribe to, pray tell?

Only time will tell.

...This is going nowhere, honestly. Dear God.

Current Music: Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People

Temperamental

...I blame the hormones. And myself too, I guess. Because we have always been taught not to blame others, and nobody likes to be blamed for others' problems.

I know I'd feel that way. And I also know for a fact - here I sort of blame my ego, but whatever - that I absolutely hate it when people contradict me.

Maybe it's because I spend an insane amount of time cogitating, weighing options, coming up with conclusions, rewinding scenarios in my already messed up brain. And so when it struck me that people tend to jump to conclusions only after analysing a small slice of my life, my behaviours, I get irritated...and I snap.

The rebel within me awoke today...though not exactly in front of the right people.

Maybe I've been far too lenient all my life. In which I allowed people to make decisions despite the fact that I'm the one who will be suffering the consequences. I allowed people push me around. I allowed them to nag me even when all I want is for them to just drop the effing issue. I stayed around to get an earful of their lectures even when I know very well that they are just working on assumptions.

Perhaps my Surgical posting has made me extra impatient, in that I can tune out whatever I refuse to hear up until a certain point before I actually burst, instead of letting it go.

I don't even want to have opinions anymore. What good is there, when what I say, what I do, who I am don't matter in the least?

Current Music: Fix You - Coldplay

Breaking Point

I can feel it. Something breaking in me - whether it is the last bit of my patience, my humanity, or my sanity, I have no idea.

Dear God, I'm surrounded by laziness and incompetence and inefficiency and utter nonsense. Not to say that I'm the best and the most capable person in the ward (or the department, but whatever), but at least I take my job seriously and think of people!

I can't function like this.

So much hate. So much despair...so much regret.

The only thing heavier than my footsteps to work, is the despair burdening my bosom.

Fortunately enough, rare though as they may be, there are those occasions that I could share some laughter, a jovial chat and the promise of some gastronomic indulgence. Though I do wish, every so often, for this distance from home to just disappear, because there are times that one just need the friendly reassurance that it's not just one person - you - against this mad, mad world.

Not forgetting, a certain smile that could light up my dark and grievous world, an infectious laughter, and a bundle of memories that could bring this...pleasant sense of gastritis (that possibly no proton pump inhibitor could ever resolve).

And this prayer that I extend to Him the Almighty.

They are the small beacon of hope - possible the only factors that still enables me to go on...but how further and how long more?

Current Music: Domino - Jessie J.

P/s: Karniza, dude, you are right...It seems like lately all I am capable of putting down into words is depressing. Shall I refer myself to a psychiatrist?

Compilations #18

1. I'm just so tired of everything.

Being constantly thrown into different wards just after I'm well adapting to one is starting to take its toll. And while the female ward can be relatively more peaceful than the male ward, in terms of drama it is anything but peaceful.

If I could just throw throw my hands up in frustration and just walk off to leave all this madness behind, I would. Because I can't take all this stupidity anymore. The hierarchy is too much. Certain people are just not professional enough. People are becoming more and more selfish. Patients demand too much, way beyond what we can provide. Oh, heck, the hospital's in a damned poverty, and the ECG machines should just burn in hell. Haemato lab people - some of them - are lazy (Pick up the phone, morons!) and so darned annoyingly rude.

Even my best is not good enough, my patience has seen better days, and nowadays all I want to do is to just lock myself away and cry myself to sleep.

At one point it feels like everything else is hopeless, and I can only depend on myself. But it just exhausts me entirely.

Lamenting to people is no good, but even complaining to God doesn't seem to bring much relief.

What do I do then?

Years from now, would I be able to look back at this moment in time and say that "Yes, I survived this hellhole, and I'm a better person because of it"?

2. I may not have good understanding of people as I thought.

That would explain why I can be so socially awkward at times. Why my social life is nonexistent. Why I am just so bad in maintaining friendships. Why I have very few friends that I feel like I can share my problems with without feeling so bad for burdening them.

...And why I'll most likely be forever alone.

...Damn, I feel more tears coming.

I need a break from all this...desperately.

Current Music: Need You - Travie McCoy

Clash of Postulations

The world today is not the same as before. Different generations act and respond differently.

I don't know if my realistic (read: pessimistic) standpoint is to blame, but I seem to think that things are more complicated than they appear to be. As in, there are aspects that are just beyond our control, that the outcome is not as simple as either A or B. My parents, on the other hand, equipped with their own life experiences, tend to think that their views are right - or, more right than mine, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Yes, occasionally there will be debates in the house. In a way I do appreciate the fact that they let me voice out what I think (despite my feeble hopes of emerging as the champion, pfft!), rather than telling me to just shut my mouth and nod reluctantly to whatever they were saying.

They make the wrong comparisons.

I tend to get emotional because they don't seem to see the reason behind my arguments.

They say that all that I have come to know - and adore - will bring me nowhere but towards a disastrous end.

I say that time is not my side - yet. Is it not the Holy Quran that said that man is ever hasty? ["Dan memang manusia bersifat tergesa-gesa" (17:11)]

At the end of the day their skepticism placed me in doubt...and I get bitter all over again.

Bitter and grieved.


Current Music: Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Kelly Clarkson

Compilations #17

1. Spare me the drama at work, please.

It's amazingly scary what stress can do to you, and what you in turn do unto others. Even I find myself sniping at those I find deserving - especially after I made the initial effort of being extra-civilised and yet received a disappointing response.

Sometimes it's just not worth the extra effort.

I can't afford to play nice all the way - not when people don't seem to appreciate it. Yes, I know it's supposed to be for God and all...but I am just human, liable to emotional breakdowns.

I try not to impart judgment on people...because deep down I realise that I might(?) be doing the same mistake if I were in their shoes.

2. There is a change in how I spend my money these days...and I'm kind of worried.

3. How do you define me? How do you see me in your eyes?

Maybe you don't know me that well. Or maybe I'm just too multi-faceted that you don't get to see a certain side of me that prefers to hide in the darkness, behind a pleasant face.

Or maybe I'm the one that's in error, blind to my own shortcomings.

4. I'm starting to understand - and emulate - my mother's occasional indifference(?) to patients' complaints.

...Good God, I really need to be done with housemanship and just get out of clinical work for good.

Current Music: Payphone - Maroon Five featuring Wiz Khalifa

Departure

I hate this distance.

My grandfather passed away yesterday, and I received the news when they were already twenty minutes into giving him CPR. No matter how I sped, I knew it was impossible to reach there for any last words.

There was a sense of hollowness in me during the entire day...even until now.

I pray that God will place him among His Blessed. Amiin.

Compilations #16

1. I have just lost whatever ounce of respect I once had, however negligible it was to begin with.

This may prove to be problematic in the long run.

Is this just my larger-than-life ego speaking? Or does it stem from my disappointment in those I call my superiors?

2. How is it possible to maintain one's niyyah and selflessness - keikhlasan - at work, when it feels like everything is working against you?

Dear God, let not every effort of mine be in vain in Thy Eyes.

3. Which is worse - no system or bad system? I honestly can't tell anymore.

I can't take all the stupidity around me.

4. Dunia dah terbalik...

5. Sometimes I think we don't match. We, who come from two different worlds, with different temperaments and whims.

But every time I hear your voice, my heart makes a little leap like a young puppy, and against my will a smile breaks through the iron facade that I put up.

When our eyes meet, a small part of me can't help feeling that I may not be good enough for you, and wonder what is it that you see in me, a simple girl with a disjointed view of the world. And so I tear my eyes away - reluctantly! - because I don't wish for you to see the sadness that threaten to show itself with each passing time.

Somehow I have a feeling that you know what you've done to me.

...Stop making me fall harder, darn you!

Also...I kinda hate that I'm missing you more than I should.

...I'm so bad at this sort of things, am I not?

Current Music: Stereo Hearts - Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine

In Which I Talk About the Same Darn Things

"Change your thoughts and you change your world" - Norman Vincent Peale

1. Alas, I lament for my failure as a narrator!

Is my life so monotonous that all I ever talk about is work? And my neverending regret for my inherent weakness to change myself and the world around me? And forget not my penchant to dramatise everything - surely there has to be a limit to what nonsense I get off on!

(If I'm not making any sense, blame it on my lack of sleep last night - all in the name of work!)

In some aspects, surgical is not too bad. Sure, there are those things that still irk me every now and then - such as the impossibility of finding for things when you need them (e.g. X-ray films and case sheets and even the...gel thingy) and how we keep on running out of things (We have too many admissions! Stop getting yourselves sick, people!) and how people still keep on thinking I'm a nurse (Dangit, what the heck is wrong with the world!?) and specialists demanding things that are close to impossible.

There are a few nurses that are helpful. Certain PPKs don't mind sending down the blood samples that I asked for. Certain nursing students didn't mind helping us to do ECGs. So yeah, maybe it's not too bad.

But it still hurts being pressurised by those on top.

We're still understaffed.

The system is still as abominable as ever - if not worse.

I lament for the health state of the general public, and their awareness.

I weep for my own state of being human.

...And I pray that I will not later on become like those I despise.

2. Have you any idea what you've done to me?

I am now a stranger to myself. All these feelings that I can't contain...I can't even pour them into a sonnet, a hymn.

...Then all the feelings manifest as gastritis. And so - foolish that I am! - I can only go, "Wait, what!?"


Current Music: Drive By - Train

An Ending is Just A Beginning of Something Else

*If you are looking for happy stuff, please cease reading at once and look elsewhere. If you are looking for a glimpse of the darkness that has consumed me at the moment, then so be it; My advice, carry on with caution.

Done with 2 weeks of tagging in the Surgical Department, and honestly, I dislike it immensely.

Somehow the hospital always manages to throw one surprise after another - and not in a good way, I assure you. Just when I thought that the Paeds nursery actually runs on havoc alone, along comes 4-2 and somehow, suddenly nothing actually makes sense.

The passover system is stupid, hands down. We are not nurses, and honestly, we are burdened with enough unnecessary tasks as it is. And the rounds take too much time, leaving us with little time to get things done before the next rounds begin.

And it's horribly ridiculous when you have more MOs than HOs doing the rounds. At one point I just wanted to purse my lips and just do what we HOs essentially are - secretaries.

We are understaffed. How can we complete any of the ward work when we are expected to go for OT (one person for elective, one person for emergency operations), daycare, scope room, and the radiology department to go begging for urgent scans? 

Also, the schedule is crazy. There is no making sense when all you have in your hands and around you is insanity.

In whatever establishment, there needs to be a system. No matter how many times I have emphasised the fact that I thrive on entropy in the past, it no longer applies when there are just too many people in the picture. Hence there needs a good teamwork, a good sense of responsibility, a mutual feeling of "I've got your back".

Here, it's like people's negative qualities manifest only too easily. Everyone is too busy saving their own skin. We're too busy passing over things that the ward work is compromised.

I like to think that I'm not as negative as people make me out to be, so imagine my rage when I was accused of being too judgmental over people instead of trying to be more positive about the whole situation.

I frankly am quite tired of trying to look for a positive aspect when it's greatly overshadowed by the negative and the insanity.

And tomorrow...honestly, I'm scared to face tomorrow.

Can't today stay instead? Because today, after one week of torture...I savoured joy.

Current Music: Rolling in the Deep - Adele

Anomaly

"The woman who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been" ~ Albert Einstein

It's difficult being the odd one out.

Positive people would label this as 'being unique', but how does that stand in a world where one might be punished for being different?

There is a Japanese proverb that describes exactly this: The nail that sticks out gets hammered...Or something that sounds like that.

Is there something that I missed? Am I so terribly uninformed that I have this naivety, this tendency to float about in a world of my own creation, made up of enchanting lies and blissful ignorance? Was my childhood so utterly traumatising(?) that it managed to put my entire perspective on life in jeopardy?

Perhaps I am guilty of assuming, of passing judgments too easily after all. Of being unable to appreciate those that may be obscure at first glance, or being blind to what are glaringly obvious to the rest of the world.

Funny how personal opinions and beliefs can taint our outlooks with prejudice - and vice versa.

But when I observe the world around me, with the myriad of people and all sorts of drama that they embroiled themselves in unwittingly, my mind automatically wonders - Is it just me, or has the world gone cuckoo?

Maybe, with regards to Mr. Einstein's quote above...this is one of the many ways that the term "Forever Alone" can be applied to yours truly.

Current Music: Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Kelly Clarkson

Intermission #37

1. In a way, despite the prospect of greater trials and trouble ahead, I can't wait to get out of Paeds.

Allah Willing, I just have to go through two more working shifts - both are resus, but screw it, it's not like I have much control over the matter. Things could be worse so...here's to praying that I shall survive those two days!

I hate dealing with parents, full stop. Maybe not all - I'm not that heartless that I can afford to leave them with their anxieties - but for God's sake could they at least take a damn hint and see that we are busy with rounds and stop nagging us with questions such as but not limited to, "Bila anak saya boleh keluar?" or "Macam mana baby saya?" or "Kenapa kena amik darah lagi?".

Today at one point I wondered if the hospital's policy of nursery admission is too bloody all-encompassing that maybe we are having unnecessary admissions, all in the name of observation.

...And whose fault is it when the hospital resorts to drastic and effing ridiculous measures just to cut costs? One of which is by delaying our allowance, which is a tyrannical move, I tell you!

2. A precarious state.

In which uncertainty is certain. Dubious, and up to anyone's interpretation.

It could go either way...and I fear I may not be prepared for a bad end.

Yet, it had not blinded me entirely. Far from perfect, but at the same time, sounds rather too good to be true that I need to double check myself to make sure that I was not dreaming.

But am I compromising too much here?

Would testing the waters sink the boat to the bottom? Or will it bring us to greater heights?

Or am I singing a solo melody here?

Fear precludes me from finding out for real.

Current Music: Number One for Me - Maher Zain

Fill in the Blanks

1. There is a popular saying on Tumblr: "Follow your heart, but take your brain with you".
So what do you do when reason says no, but both your heart and your instincts (at least, the less rational part of it) say go?
No matter what people may say, at the end of the day, it's only going to be me going down when everything falls apart.
Uncertain where else to look for the answer, I look heavenward and whisper a prayer.
Deep down - despite all my vehement denials - I know what I want. I wonder if it was ever in His Plans.

2. The other day I was accused of putting too much inhibition on myself.
My argument? Because I know it would not be me if it were otherwise.
Maybe it's because of this thing people call 'ego'. Or maybe because I just prefer to maintain my insouciant air, despite the contrary.
Or maybe I've just been hurt too often, too badly in the past, that I'd rather keep to myself than leave myself vulnerable.

3. I swear, some people have this inherent ability to just piss me off without even trying.
Even so I try hard to be calm and not judge too harshly, because we are but humans. Because I know that I'm far from perfect...
...but at least I'm trying, am I not?

4. Yes, I realise that my timing is, more often than not, off. Which is why I rarely initiate things, and just let things come as they may.
But please, trust me a little bit more when I say it's still too early to say anything for sure.

5. Dang, tomorrow I'm in charge of resus again. Shoot la weyy...

Current Music: Breathing - Jason Derulo

Intermission #36

1. Kudos, Sir, for making me all jittery when all I want to do is be still.

I applaud you, Sir, for single-handedly inspiring my muses one moment and then killing the poetry that they wove in the next.

Lastly, I congratulate you for giving me a light of hope, however small it may be, and more reasons to smile and, ironically, torture myself - all at once.

2. Please, Dear God, let me finish Paediatrics soon.

3. Maybe I should just go back this weekend. On Friday, right after work, even just for one night.

Current Music: Always Be There - Maher Zain

And Now, For Something Relatively New

1. ...On second thought, maybe it ain't all new.

I'll be frank. At work, last week was bad on so many levels. I realise that I'm just not cut out for neonatal resuscitation stuff, and couple that with loads of cases, I'd say that it was hell to go through. Yes, including the fact that on the night prior to said resus I would be having nightmares. Nightmares, I tell you!

So yeah, I'm not into emergency stuff. It's not good for my poor little heart.

This week has been a breath of fresh air. Yeah, so I got stuck with being the Head of the shift for several times, but hey, anything is better than being the one in charge of Resus. There were a couple of dramas ("Why did you guys steal one of our p.m. people!? You guys have enough people already!" or "Why the heck am I Head again suddenly? Why me!?" or "Dude, why do we have so many premature babies and twins? What the heck is O&G doing? What the heck have the Melaka people been doing!?") and stuff, but...well, at least I'm still alive and kicking. And vigorous with good respiratory effort and muscle tone and...uhhh, yeah.

Last week I was in pieces. This week...somehow, I recovered. The trip back home last weekend helped greatly...and then some.

2. ...I am already defeated, but if it means eventually winning a bigger game, then it's fine with me. More than fine, in fact.

But only if I'm not going down alone.

3. Fact: I hate working in the nursery during weekends. For so many reasons that I don't bother making a list anymore.

4. Off day tomorrow, yay! Maybe it's high time to spring clean my room...and shop for a pair of shoes. Again.

Current Music: Without You - David Guetta featuring Usher

P/s: Karniza, dude, terharu to see the pics in your blog entry! Missing you guys and the good ol' university days already...

Kotoba

Words are powerful.

Could this little fact, perhaps, be the reason why I immerse myself in linguistics and writing?

They say rumour spreads faster than a bushfire (...or something to that effect?). But what, pray tell, are words when they may not even represent the situation?

Maybe people see what I fail - or deny myself - to see.

Maybe people just jump too easily to conclusions.

Or maybe the simple fact remains: people just love to talk about people, whatever the topic may be.

Current Music: Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Kelly Clarkson

People Will Be People

1. After a certain point, one just couldn't give a damn as to what people think of oneself anymore.

I'll be frank here: ever since I entered nursery it feels as if my semi-depression has worsened. As such, there is a desperate need to actually run away from all the absurdities and hectic schedule by going back home.

Yes, my threshold for homesickness is reduced to two weeks. Previously during Ortho I could go up to three weeks.

Even a few MOs noted this change - which probably isn't saying much considering I'm more or less like an open book. You can tell that something is wrong...but even so some people misunderstood it.

So if I can't even hold a 'neutral' expression, what, pray tell, do you expect of me?

And so, whatever. Think what you want - all I know is that I'm not causing anybody trouble, and only He knows of my misery.

2. Two of those rare moments that I appreciated a baby in the nursery:

i) "Oh my God, so cute! Can I take him home and not return him to his mother?"

Colleague #1: "Can you put him down? I want to examine him..."

"You're just trying to pry him away from me..."

Colleague #1: "Okay, fine, then you examine him la..."

"On examination, baby is cute. Unable to proceed further."

ii) Still with the same baby,

Nurse: "Dr, dah habis ke belum? Saya nak pulangkan 'kat mak dia..."

"Kak, saya tak nak pulangkan, boleh tak? Comel sangat!"

"Boleh. Dr je la yang bawa balik, bagi dia susu..."

"Erkk, saya takde susu. Saya bagi Nescafe boleh tak?"

"Macam tu tak tidur la budak ni..."

3. I curse awfully a lot these days. The amount of curses that came out from my mouth in a day is more than a whole Ortho posting put together.

...Not exactly something to be proud of, I take it?


Current Music: Who Says - Selena Gomez

Nil

I have nothing to say.

Words fail me when things are swiveling away out of my grasp, just as reality seems so threatening that my imagination is on the verge of rejecting it in favour of an idealistic, rose-tainted world. When the surrounding entropy is too much even for me to handle. When I'm surrounded by morons who refuse to see reason, and refuse any cooperation just so we can increase our efficiency.

This is one of those times that I feel utterly embarrassed for my race.

A friend of mine would counter all my negative thoughts, insisting that I have what he called a "positive charisma" - whatever that is supposed to mean.

I still have yet to learn, that this fleeting world is insignificant, immaterial compared to the everlasting life in the Hereafter. This world is too trivial to be wasted by being in constant sadness.

...What does it say of me, as a Believer?

Current Music: Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People

Tough

They say tough times don't last, but tough people do.

I say, life gets tougher because it assumes you do too.

What do you do when everything falls apart, and you know that you're next in the line of fire?

What do you do when you know everything out there is screwing you up - some slowly and bit by bit, while others just knock you down even when your hands are up in the air in surrender - but you're just too powerless, too insignificant to actually bring about any wind of change?

What do you do when you can see how things are just so very wrong, but you cannot help but be enslaved by it because that's how just the effing system is and how some aspects in your environment is just so uncivilised that you start to lose hope in humanity itself?

What do you do when you're just so bloody tired of all this nonsense and you feel the urge to just scream out and somehow outdo all the babies' cries?

Would you run, even just for a little while, to escape all the stupidity that seems too eager to consume you in its tide?

I have lost my compassion...and I know it'll be tough regaining it.

I bloody hate the hospital.

"Then don't feel, just do!"

So I was told. But it just robs me of whatever joy I had left. Like a low-paid worker who does the same darn thing over and over again, with little to no room to improve him or herself.

And suppressing all this negative energy? It only delays the pain, as the comeback shows that it is capable of becoming even badder and more intimidating...and more crippling.

What is left to feel when you're too scared to feel joy and happiness, but too scared to feel pain and sorrow?

What do you do when your anger is so close to exploding, and yet there is no safe outlet anywhere?

What do you say when you have nobody to listen to your wails and bitter cries?

What do you do when you know the only thing you can do is to withdraw from people, and yet you're scared to be left alone with nothing but your gloomy and fearful thoughts?

What do you think about when your own thread of thoughts are full of disjointed things, as if there is a checkpoint in your head somewhere - perhaps your last glimmer of sanity? - that acts to cease those horrible monsters residing in your head before they take over and shut you down?

Monsters in my head. They're like parasites that suck whatever is left of me, and I am too weak to put up a fight.

What do you do when you look up to the Heavens and pray hard, but words just failed you and you just freeze there, knowing that despite the incoherence that punctuates your speech, God Knows what is it that you yearn to tell Him?
And so, these tears. And yet, with their release, my pain is not decreasing in the least.

I ask thee - what do you do when you have too many questions but the answers are nowhere in sight?

Rhetorical questions can be hard to answer, are they not?

Current Music: Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People

When They Cry

Dear God, the fabric of time slips easily and quickly through my fingers as if it were silk.

Not to say that everything has been smooth sailing so far. I've had 3 days of tagging in nursery already, but truth be told I haven't learnt anything much. I've yet to clerk any case because I was too busy running to the lab to trace things several times in a day.

There are times that you just throw everything to the wind and just go "Wtf". This is one of them.

Honestly though, it's difficult when there is a discrepancy in terms of time. The higher-ups want everything stat, but the lab processing and PPK takes time. Oh, heck, even cultures need time to grow so what is the rationale for tracing them every single day!?

I really hate the nursery.

The babies cry, sometimes alone, most of the times in unison as if in an orchestra. A badly conducted one, the kind that makes you want to cry as well.

My eyes hurt from the phototherapy lights, I'm worried that my migraine might kick in on a nightly basis.

And my hand hurts from writing so much. I'm humiliated by the state of my handwriting now.

The worse is yet to come, and yet I can't even handle this!?

I foresee the need for a shoulder to cry on, but everybody has his or her own life to live and I...I have my own. I have no one but God...which should be enough.

Theoretically.

...I have much to learn.

I kind of hate my job already, truth be told.

Current Music: How to Go - school food punishment

Stuck

1. It is as I feared.

I have always thought that I have a way with words (when I actually bother to), spinning them around to sound as least offensive as possible when the need arises.

But when fear and awkwardness kicked in, any sort of formality is lost and gone is any subtlety that once pervaded my speech.

I fear I may have hurt someone's feelings, and bruised his ego.

But truth remains the truth, however ugly it may be.

But it is better than to be led astray, yes? For the pain will surely grow in proportion later on if the bud is not nipped from the start.

For how I treat you depends on how you treat me in the first place. That's how we all roll, is it not? Blame me if that makes me sound bermuka-muka, but surely you yourself would realise that you would be guilty of the same as well?

But please do not doubt the honesty in my apology.

2. Dreading next week when I enter into my nursery posting. It'll be much busier, so am I actually up for it?

Even my branula insertion skills is not 100% foolproof yet.

Will there be time to take a step back and breathe?

3. I'm such a bad friend, am I not?

Current Music: Glass no Highway - doa

Compilations #15

1. Time, a great agent of Change.

But certain things are difficult to get rid of. My penchant for dramatisation, for instance - perhaps it's just how my humour is, how I roll.

Never listen to me after my night shift but before my morning cup of coffee; Whatever I babble on will either send you into fits of laughter or give you the urge to knock your head (not mine, I hope?) against the nearest wall.

2. I haven't been updating my writing blog much.

Perhaps it's because my focus has been shifted - towards work, and towards certain possibilities that I have long deemed as mere fiction, and yet still cannot help but to feel drawn to.

It's scary, isn't it, how small things can affect things in big, unimaginable ways?

I salute you, but at the same time I lament for my own weakness for being human.

3. Somehow I always manage to get myself stuck in weird and awkward situations. It's like I'm a natural magnet for this sort of thing.

The uncertainty thrills me for a short while, then it comes and knocks me down to my knees, and kills whatever light of hope I once had.

...I wonder how long will I be able to take this rigmarole before it completely exhausts me.

Current Music: Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera

In Which There are Too Many Maybe's

1. I haven't been well lately.

It has been one week of strenuous coughing & feverish episodes, I'm suspecting that I might be having pertussis. Last night I probably spent close to three hours coughing - dry, irritating cough - that I lost sleep. Today I was more on autopilot mode, and yet still managed to do my morning rounds. Luckily my MO was nice that she said she'd just read my notes rather than let me do the talking…

Still unwilling to take any cough syrup. Never been a fan of them since the start, to be honest. Already on the antibiotic azithromycin, only because the pharmacy is out of Augmentin and one MO said the bugs in my current paeds ward can only be killed by either Augmentin or azithromycin…

Maybe it's the stress. Maybe it's all the germs that the patients brought with them to the ward. Or maybe it's something more…

2. I'm probably destined to be an outsider.

Maybe I'm not a good friend after all. I can't seem to make the sacrifices to actually hang out with them, mainly because of my busy schedule and hectic life and, most of all, the distance.

Maybe my introspectiveness and weak stamina should be blamed as well. Or maybe I'm just not caring or selfless enough…

3. It's tiring for me to follow others' paces all the time. But it's even more hurtful when my timing is off and I get a forced response.

Sometimes I think it's just not fair.

4. I miss having people to chat with.

So yeah, I am missing my university days. At least we were there, in one place, free to hang out and laugh together and share ice creams and watch movies and stuff. Sometimes we would celebrate birthdays and, just for the heck of it, drive around town even though there was nothing worth seeing.

I miss the philosophical talks. Despite my preference for writing, I find it easier and more fulfilling to converse face to face with people. I get to analyse the tone of the voice, the body language, the speed of response...the kind of things that you don't get just from texting or phone calls or even online chats.

Maybe I'm just not good with people. My colleagues at the ward are just that - colleagues. Our shift ends, we go off in our separate ways, and we won't talk or text much unless it's directly work-related.

So maybe I do enjoy going to work - to some extent.

…So what is it that is holding me back, keeping me away?

5. Am I the only one suffering here?

Would the knowledge change anything between us? What would it take for you to summon the courage and take the plunge?

Am I forever destined to be chasing that which is not meant for me? As well as running away from those that I deem as hazards?

Frustration Knows My Name

This has proven to be too much.

I don't know why I'm so stressed out. Still trying to figure out the answer to that, and yet…in the process I unearth so many possible answers that, in the end, results in more depression and stress.

I'm not even sure if I can do this any longer. The dirty works of clerking cases (Answer my simple questions, don't take me round and round…I've no time and no patience), taking blood, filling up stupid notification forms (damn paperworks, I didn't sign up for secretarial work!), and parents who can't leave us alone (for the last time, stop asking me the things that the nurses are in charge of!), re-inserting branulas in kids who are prone to have them dislodged (it's unwise for me to do it in kids in whom I have had bad history/impression) and for God's sake stop crying already!

Difficult parents are another issue…which probably merit an entry of their own. But honestly, come on…if you want first class treatment, go to private!

There has to be a more efficient way to do things. It feels like we've been doing repetitive work, and it's not like re-writing those damn things actually give us better understanding of the patient. I mean, hello? After three, four patients who presented with the same complaints of fever, cough and runny nose…I've given up hope in trying  to remember! And people at the emergency department, please do us a huge favor and stop admitting cases that need no admissions in the first place! Do you know how much work it costs us, and how many discharge summaries are still pending!? And why must tracing lab results be such a hassle?

In any case…sure, it's easy for patients or their relatives to insist on their rights to be seen as "people with feelings". Shouldn't we, medical practitioners, be viewed the same way, seeing that we're also people with feelings? Or can it be said that just because "it's our job", it automatically negates us of our own rights to be respected and some space to actually get our job done?!

In summary, I'm still hating Paediatrics.

I don't know how much longer I can survive this. I mean, Surgical's going to be worse…and what chance do I have, when I can't even keep up right now?

…Or maybe I just hate the hospital. Yeah.

Current Music: Fix You - Coldplay

Compilations #14

1. My limit, before my dreams all come crumbling down, is 3 to 4 days. Which is bad, since previously it took one week for my optimism to run out and leave me in the lurch.
I've got it bad, indeed.
I despise this feeling of dependence.
Somehow it's unfair if I'm the only one suffering here.
Somehow, I'm surprised that I'm still trying to desperately hang on - but on to what? God's Promises and His Justice?

2. Today, during the ward round...

MO 1: Mycoplasma infection can cause hemolytic anaemia, right?
MO 2: Yes, I think so.
Me: *nodding silently in agreement*
MO 1: Why're you shaking your head?
Me: I'm nodding. Yes, it causes hemolytic anaemia.
MO 1: *to other MOs around* This girl is smart. She knows things that I didn't know during my houseman years. *turns back me* What does parvovirus cause?
Me: *suddenly thinking of Slapped Cheek Disease* You mean the infection?
MO 1: No, what anaemia it causes.
Me: Sickle cell disease.
MO 1: …
Me: Ehh, aplastic anaemia!
MO 1: I only knew that when I became an MO! Are you going into Paediatrics later?
Me: No.
MO 1: Good, don't go into Paeds. You're going to make me look bad.
MO 3: If she enters Paeds, I'll be the first one to be kicked out…

Anyway, parvovirus infection can trigger sickle cell crisis, so I wasn't entirely wrong there...
I still think Paediatrics as meh. And I keep on forgetting to bring earplugs just to protect my ears from the children's screaming during bloodtaking...

3. Sometimes we need to remember to be thankful for the things that we already have, instead of chasing those that may or may not be out of our reach, but not necessarily the best for us. God alone Knows.

Current Music: Namida no Saki ni - Crystal Kay

P/s: Blogging about the above conversation is not meant to be a brag...but perhaps to serve as something to boost my mood up in case it goes back to its gloomy shell. Besides...a part of me thinks it would be bragging if I were to put it on my FB wall...Pfft!

Intermission #35

I can't believe that I haven't updated for around two weeks.

Truth be told, I've been trying to make heads or tails of a lot of issues. A whole lot of them, that enumerating them down one by one would take some time. So I had to make do with trying to rein them in my head, but honestly, it hasn't been working well.

I'm done with Orthopaedics, currently am in Paediatrics. Completed 7 days of tagging which, truth be told, gave me little opportunity to actually learn stuff. Maybe that's just me - right after I'm done in the ward, I head home and collapse. I've never been one to actually study in the ward even from my student days - trust me, with crying children and fussy parents/aunts/grandparents/what-have-you, ward rounds three times daily, and colleagues who are prone to crack jokes...any effort of studying is futile.

Even the Net bores me these days. I haven't been following any anime lately, and the only show that I finished was UN-GO (which was awesome, but I digress). Even putting my thoughts into words proved to be no small feat. Whatever scenario I conjured in my mind seemed unfit to be shared to the rest of the virtual world. Any string of words is mercilessly axed before any coherence is met. Any faint image, further blurred.

I frankly am losing control of my thoughts, my imagination, and I'm scared.

I've always been afraid to dream of beautiful, cheerful things.

But there comes a time when dark, haunting nightmares gather around me, and I could only cower, alone, defenseless, and left to my despair.

When that sliver of hope appears, I'm still afraid to reach out for it, no matter how desperate I am.

Maybe it's retribution. Maybe it's His Trial for me. Maybe it's just me.

I'm losing a battle with myself. What now?

Current Music: Kimi ga Matteiru kara - Gackt Camui